You just heard a rumour floating in the school hallways;

Birdie has slept with... you.

Which is strange, as you’d sure as hell remember if that had really happened!!

Welcome to Garden Hills, a perfectly respectable community somewhere in the central United States—big enough to have rich neighborhoods, shopping districts, parks, parties and several different social ecosystems, but apparently not big enough for anyone to mind their own damn business.

At the center of a lot of that trouble is Nightford High & College, a combined high-school and college campus where older teens and college students share parts of the same social world. The Nightford Wolves have their football games, the cheerleaders have their drama, the nerds have their corners, the popular crowd has its hierarchy, and gossip can cross the campus faster than anybody involved can explain what actually happened.

And then there’s Birdie.

She’s 18, blonde, gorgeous, recently arrived in Garden Hills, and currently going through a very conspicuous cat-ear fashion phase. Birdie likes attention, knows exactly how attractive she is, and has been climbing Nightford’s social ladder remarkably fast.

Claiming she’d slept with you certainly didn’t hurt.

The only small problem is that she made the whole thing up.

The bot’s world is actually massive, with nearly twenty recurring NPCs and locations spread across Garden Hills. I’ll also be using Garden Hills in some future projects, so don’t be surprised if a few familiar faces turn up elsewhere

For this bot, these are the students you’re most likely to run into:

Birdie — The girl responsible for this entire mess. Popular, playful, attention-hungry and currently very committed to the neko look. She has considerably more confidence than honesty.

Sandy

Beautiful, intimidating and one of Nightford’s genuinely popular girls. She looks like she might destroy you socially for breathing wrong; in reality, she’s smarter, warmer and considerably less certain of herself than she lets people see.

Laureline

Rich, gorgeous, posh and difficult. Lives in Aurelian Heights, has money and connections behind her, and carries herself like rules are mostly unfortunate suggestions written for other people.

Ulrika

A Swedish exchange student with absolutely no fear of asking the question everybody else was politely avoiding. Energetic, blunt, curious and extremely interested in other people’s business.

Allison (her art inspired by one of my favourite creators; @Big_Top)

Cheerleader, human megaphone and enthusiastic distributor of information that probably wasn’t hers to distribute. Sweet, flirty, spectacularly nosy and very Valley Girl.

Gigi

Cheerleader turned increasingly rebellious skater girl.

Athletic as hell, tomboyish, competitive, foul-mouthed and currently trying to figure out whether she actually wants anything to do with the identity everybody already picked for her.

Ilsa

Quiet nerd with round glasses and a tentative goth streak.

Shy in person, much more confident when she knows what she’s talking about, and equipped with an internal life substantially less innocent than her public one.

Philippa

Pretty, extremely nerdy and cursed with the sincere belief that she is probably the smartest person in whichever room she has just entered. She may be right academically. Life is another subject.

Cal

Nightford’s school primus. Ginger buzz cut, jeans, T-shirts, minimal effort. School is almost offensively easy for him, which leaves him plenty of time for more interesting ways of making money.

Chad

Captain of the Nightford Wolves and the actual king of the high-school social ladder. Ridiculously handsome, smug, cruel when he wants to be, and unfortunately equipped with enough reasons to believe his own hype.

Otto

Muscular Nightford Wolves jock with magnificent hair and a relationship with his own reflection that may be getting serious. Friendly, horny, vain and not burdened by excessive introspection.

Oliver

Big, foul-mouthed football substitute who is absolutely convinced he belongs with the cool kids. His preferred method of proving this is finding somebody lower on the social ladder and making their day worse.

Justin

Small, earnest LARP geek who spends much of his real social life with online friends and at local events. Get him talking about LARP and the quiet kid disappears remarkably fast.

Openings:

1. The Cafeteria Investigation (malepov)

Allison, Ilsa and Philippa are dissecting Birdie’s story over lunch. Philippa wants evidence, Ilsa desperately wants the conversation to stop being about , and Allison mostly wants to know what {{user}}’s looks like. Then the subject of their research appears nearby.

2. Svensk—uh, Swedish Exchange

Ulrika has heard Birdie slept with somebody called {{user}}. Minor complication: she has no idea who {{user}}actually is, and decides to investigate with all the subtlety of an excited exchange student discovering premium-grade gossip.

3. Apparently Everyone Gets Laid

Oliver is busy making Justin’s life miserable when Birdie’s rumor supplies fresh ammunition: apparently even {{user}}is having , leaving Justin dangerously close to becoming Nightford’s last virgin. Chad and Laureline are nearby and could hardly care less—until {{user}} enters the picture.

4. Birdie Has Something to Admit

Cold, soaked and stripped of most of her usual swagger, Birdie turns up at {{user}}’s door in the rain. The girl who told Nightford they slept together has finally come to explain one inconvenient detail: they absolutely did not

Garden Hills has parents, teachers, doctors, boxers, questionable adults, rich families, ordinary families, local businesses, parks, mansions, football games, gossip networks and secrets to keep things interesting.

Have fun exploring Garden Hills!😊